Quotes from work
Ajax

Sophocles Original title Αἴας

Sophocles' Ajax, or Aias , is a Greek tragedy written in the 5th century BCE. Ajax may be the earliest of Sophocles' seven tragedies to have survived, though it is probable that he had been composing plays for a quarter of a century already when it was first staged. It appears to belong to the same period as his Antigone, which was probably performed in 442 or 441 BCE, when he was 55 years old. The play depicts the fate of the warrior Ajax, after the events of the Iliad but before the end of the Trojan War.


Sophocles photo

“Nobly to live, or else nobly to die,
Befits proud birth.”

ἀλλ᾽ ἢ καλῶς ζῆν ἢ καλῶς τεθνηκέναι
τὸν εὐγενῆ χρή
Source: Ajax, Lines 479-480

Sophocles photo

“For kindness begets kindness evermore,
But he from whose mind fades the memory
Of benefits, noble is he no more.”

χάρις χάριν γάρ ἐστιν ἡ τίκτουσ᾽ ἀεί
ὅτου δ᾽ ἀπορρεῖ μνῆστις εὖ πεπονθότος,
οὐκ ἂν γένοιτ᾽ ἔθ᾽ οὗτος εὐγενὴς ἀνήρ.
Source: Ajax, Lines 522-524

Sophocles photo

“Of all human ills, greatest is fortune's wayward tyranny.”

Source: Ajax, Line 486

Sophocles photo
Sophocles photo

“Ah, son, may you prove luckier than your father, but in all else like him. Then you would not prove base.”

Ὦ παῖ, γένοιο πατρὸς εὐτυχέστερος,
τὰ δ᾽ ἄλλ᾽ ὅμοιος: καὶ γένοι᾽ ἂν οὐ κακός
Ajax, lines 550-551; English translation by Richard Jebb
Ajax

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